Are you looking for a cheap treadmill?  If you’re on a budget and don’t have much money to spend on a treadmill, it’s important you properly educate yourself before you make a purchase decision as failure to do so can result in a costly mistake.

Treadmills are expensive devices by nature, and if you skimp on a treadmill, you may wind up with a unit which breaks down on you in a year or two and ends up costing you more in the long run as you’ll have to replace it that much faster.

So what exactly is a cheap treadmill anyways?  Well, I’d say any treadmill that is under the $200-$300 price range would be considered cheap.  A lot of the treadmills that fall into this category are manual treadmills rather than motorized or electric treadmills. 

In case you’re wondering, a manual treadmill is one which does not start moving unless you yourself start running on it.  There is no on or off button, it moves when you move it.  Some people don’t like this as it has a lag time to start with and it’s not something you can control the speed of very easily.  If you want the treadmill to move more slowly, you basically have to run slower and wait for the inertia in the unit to die down.

Now, if you don’t mind exercising under these conditions, then a cheap treadmill may be right up your alley.  But there is more to a cheap manual treadmill than just that.  On a cheap manual treadmill you will not be able to change the inclination of the treadmill on the fly, sometimes you may not be able to change it at all!  In order to change it, you would need to get off the machine, and lift up the track of the unit and hinge it on a higher setting.  If you got an electric or motorized treadmill however, this whole process would be automatic, thus allowing for more diversity and fluidity in the your workouts.

Again, if this type of stuff does not bother you, then you may want to go with a manual, cheap treadmill. Other things you need to be aware of though is the warranty on the device and the stability of the device. You want to get a treadmill which is going to last you a long time, the more expensive your treadmill usually correlates to a longer life expectancy. Of course this is not always the case, I’m sure you can find some good deals on well built manual treadmills out there.

But to sum it up, as long as you’re fine with the way a cheap treadmill will operate and as long as you’re comfortable exercising without some of the bells and whistles like heart rate monitors and calorie counters, you can find yourself a fully functional manual treadmill that will serve your weight loss goals.

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